Services sector shrinking

NEW YORK — A private trade group's measure of the strength of the services sector showed shrinkage for the sixth straight month in March, and at a faster pace than expected, as job losses mount.

A services index from the Institute for Supply Management, a Tempe, Ariz.-based trade group of purchasing executives, fell to 40.8 last month from 41.6 in February. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the index to edge up to 42.